40 Million Documents To Be Digitalized In ARG Archive

Documents dating back to Afghanistan kings’ kingdoms are being catalogued in ARG’s archive.

In the Presidential Palace’s (ARG) archive, in addition to thousands of hours of films and news, nearly 40 million documents in the process of being digitalized.

ARG’s archive officials said the documents date back to the time of Afghanistan kings and former presidents.

Rafiullah Azizi, director of ARG archive, said 11 million AFs have been invested in digitalizing the archive.

Azizi said they are trying to standardize ARG’s archive which contains historical films, photos and documents.

According to Azizi, after digitalization the documents will be available to the public through a special website and will be put on exhibition to.

“Dust cannot infiltrate these cabinets and humidity cannot reach the documents. Thus, the documents inside will not become damaged for years,” said Azizi.

The documents being digitalized include orders, agreements, property documents, profiles of government officials and suggestion letters from the people during the period of the kingdoms of Afghanistan kings and presidencies of Afghanistan.

TOLOnews reporter Nabila Ashrafi who visited the archive said one of the documents was a complaint letter from a shepherd from Uruzgan province. The shepherd complained to King Mohammad Zahir Shah that two powerful men had ruined his land. The Afghan king in response to the complaint ordered local officials to immediately summon those two men and interrogate them regarding the issue.

All the documents are cleaned and the damaged ones are repaired in the archive laboratory before being digitalized.

“We do not throw away any document, as long as even one-third of it is available and readable,” Eshaq Yaqobi, head of the laboratory said.

So far, 380 books which King Mohammad Zahir Shah used to read have been transferred to President Ashraf Ghani’s library and a few other books which need repairing are at the laboratory.

In another room of the archive building, photos of Afghanistan kings and former presidents that were taken during their official trips are kept, along with old Afghan books.

The new building for ARG’s archive was established in 2018 and before that the documents, films and photos were not kept in the way they are arranged now.

Parts of the films and documents under digitalization belong to the Afghan Film archive.